How to make content work for your website

What the hell has your Granny’s china collection got to do with you trying to rank for “kitchen cabinets”.

A lot of my seo pals are into Sun Tzu who wrote a book called The Art of War, it’s a collection of the Chinese Generals thoughts on war and battle. It’s quite short and can be quoted on seo forums to possibly increase the perception of your knowledge and power. It’s not good for pulling chicks in coffee shops though, for that you need Hemmingway or Kerouac.

But this isn’t a blog post about picking up chicks in coffee shops so lets focus.

The Chinese military commander, born in 544BC came out with lines such as this.

Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent’s fate.

For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

As is quite apparent, his wisdom can successfully be applied to the implementation of not only seo but business and warfare in general. I’ve not actually read a blog post matching up his thoughts with ideas about seo tactics and strategy, it would be interesting though.

But, who I really want to talk about is the guy that enabled your Granny to have the china collection. Josiah Wedgewood.

The founding of Wedgwood’s Etruria manufactory in 1769 saw him applying a high degree of work specialisation. Manufacturing was divided between ‘useful’ and ‘ornamental’ wares. Products passed from one specialist worker to another, each completing a small part of the overall production process. This improved quality and the dexterity of the craftsmen and also saved time.
Wedgwood divided work between design and production.

Before Wedgewood, stuff would be made by one or two craftsman from start to finished. This means the craftsmen cannot specialise, but must know all parts of the process. Wedgewood invented the modern factory line. One person, a specialist in one thing, would do that thing very well to a product and pass it along to the next specialist.

Seems a no brainer, as you then have the best talent working on all elements of the process.

He then got celebrity endorsement from the Queen for his line of China bits and pieces and made a fortune. Which is very interesting when you look at the seo tool market and how that works.

I encourage you to read up on the guy, there is lots to learn if you are interested in scaling it big and bad. Of course there is stuff that Sun Tzu can teach, but it’s a mistake to fall back on tactics everyone else is using. Best to suck in the juice from multiple sources.

So lets talk SEO.

With onpage seo you can basically get a monkey to do it. Or what in the seo business are called “interns”.

The part of seo that really matters is called “link building“. And this is where Josiah Wedgewood comes in. Because link building is not about art, it’s about the process. It’s about being able to implement a creative technique in a factory setting. In other words you need to grind it out, as fast as possible and at a consistent quality level. Being able to scale up and the flick of a mouse click when demand requires.

Having a seo production line means you can employ talent best suited to the individual task. Ensuring the best product possible is being produced and also at the required quantity.

Clever implementation of technology enables the individual to earn a crust online, but employing a team who are expert in the individual processes means you cannot only own the loaf, but also the bakery too. Leaving the lone blogger to make do with the crumbs.

The process and implementation of seo does not get talked about enough, you mostly get fluff and guesses presented as facts. Whilst you do need your technique tool box to be of the highest quality, you will be crushed if your competitor is using an army of seo factory workers to deploy his mediocre techniques.

Which is annoying, because then you have to pretend be nice to people and develop social skills. But that’s cool, because there are instruction manuals on that to.